Church Bullish Despite 'Stark' Census Figures

Thursday September 26 2013

The Church of Scotland has insisted that ‘there is still a place for strong Christian values’ in Scotland, despite new figures showing the number of Christians in Scotland has dropped by 400,000 since the millennium.

However the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Lorna Hood, admitted the figures made for ‘stark reading’.

Statistics from the 2011 Census, released today (Thursday), showed the number of people describing themselves as Christian was 2.85 million (53.8% of the population), a drop from 3.3 million (65.2%) in 2001.

The number affiliated to the Church of Scotland dropped from 2.1 million to 1.7 million, or from 42.4% of the population to 32.4%.

Meanwhile, the figure for people describing themselves as ‘no religion’ increased from 1.4 million (27.8%) to 1.9 million (36.7%).

Mrs Hood said: “I am confident that the Church of Scotland will continue to be the strong voice in Scottish life and society, not only because of the words we preach but because of how we translate these words into actions; particularly in the poorest communities including through the work of CrossReach, one of the largest independent care providers in the country.

“The Census does make stark reading and we in the Church along with other faith groups will have to consider how we communicate the Gospel in a more relevant way to the people of Scotland.”

The Rev Colin Sinclair, convenor of the Church of Scotland’s Mission and Discipleship Council, said: “We recognise that numbers have declined and that the Census figures reflect the true number of people who identify both with the Church of Scotland, with the Christian religion in all its facets and with organised religion of all faiths.

“However, with more than 400,000 members the Church of Scotland is still a vibrant and important force in society today. In many other ways the Church is there for everyone and seeks to serve people at their times of greatest need. This can be seen in that four times the membership, 1.7million people, say they ‘belong’ to the Church of Scotland.

“There are many people who believe in the importance of Christian faith and worship and who want to share its message with the whole of Scotland. Over half the people of Scotland still identify with the Christian faith.

“We believe there is still a place for strong Christian values in society.  They underpin our system of morals, ethics and justice.

“But with that there comes a duty. The duty and challenge for us is not to be static – that’s why we are changing and know we need to change more especially among younger people who are the very future of our faith.”

He added that the church ‘serves and supports the whole of Scotland’, pointing out that it is still the greatest provider of marriages in Scotland and conducted a funeral every 20 minutes last year.

“This and every other weekend, more people will attend church in Scotland than attend football matches. The Kirk is still that deeply enshrined in our national identity.”

The only major Christian denomination to show an increase since 2001 is the Roman Catholic Church, which saw growth of 37,000 – keeping its percentage of the population at 15.9 (the total population of Scotland grew by 233,000 over the ten years, with a large increase in 'white other' residents, particularly from Poland).

There were also large percentage increases in the Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim populations, reflecting the growth in Asian communities.

Post Tags: census

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